Known devices for providing protection against damages to an automobile's interior and heat build-up caused by the sun's blaze generally fall into two categories: covers tailored to fully envelop the automobile's body and sunblinds adapted to be extendable across a window thereof.
Automobile covers have been available for a long time; however, they remain unpopular for several reasons. First, their deployment and re-folding are both cumbersome and time-consuming. Second, their considerable bulk causes a significant loss of a trunk's storage capacity. Third, their covering up of the automobile's registration plate and rear reflector panels obligates the vehicle owner to have the registration number of the vehicle stamped on the cover and to affix additional reflectors thereto.
Examples of automobile covers are provided in the disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,188,417 to Curchod, 4,973,100 to Yang, and 4,596,418 to Koh. The Curchod patent discloses a storable cover for covering the cabin portion of a vehicle, and the cover is stored in a compartment disposed on the underside of trunk lid of the vehicle. The cover is deployed by being taken out of the storage compartment in the trunk, such that its trailing edge remains attached thereto, and after it is unfurled, it is fed through the opening created between the raised trunk lid and the rear windshield, after which the trunk lid is closed.
The Yang patent discloses a full size car cover storable in a bag suspended in the trunk, with a water collection container for pouring away water drained from the stored cover while suspended in the trunk of the automobile. The Koh patent discloses a full size vehicle cover stored in a pocket mounted on the underside of the trunk lid, with the cover remaining attached to the pocket when the trunk lid is closed.
The sunblinds adapted to be extendable across a window also generally fall into two categories. The first type of sunblind which includes, for example, Venetian blinds is exemplified by being permanently affixed to a window. The sunblinds are typically convenient to deploy; however, their constant presence, particularly when mounted on the windscreen, obstruct a driver's field of vision. In addition, they are impractical for affixing to side windows and therefore do not effectively block out all of the sun's blaze.
The second type of sunblind which includes, for example, the "Carcool" available from Jasmin Marketing Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel and described in Israel Patent No. 42796, is exemplified by being a self-contained unit stored in a collapsed state when not in use and held in a stretched state juxtaposed against a window when required by a fitting in the automobile. The sunblinds suffer from the disadvantages of cluttering up an automobile's interior and only being effectively deployable against the windscreen by virtue of the automobile's sun-visors.
Other disadvantages of sunblinds are that their protection is limited to only a few hours of the day and is dependent on the orientation of the parked vehicle. It is often the case that a sunblind deployed in the morning is ineffective in the afternoon.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an automobile sunshade that overcomes the deficiencies of existing devices for providing protection against the sun's blaze.